The year was 1901 and Buffalo was the place to be. That is, of course, assuming you weren’t William McKinley.
| President | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Location | Buffalo, NY |
| Operated By | Cooperative agreement between the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site Foundation and the National Parks Service |
| When Visited | June 21, 2019 |
| Who With | My friend, Sara |
| Presidential Significance | Site where Theodore Roosevelt took the Oath of Office after President McKinley was assassinated |
| Pre-Visit Reading | Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America by Jared Cohen |
Buffalo was exciting place at the turn of the 20th century. The bustling city of 350,000 people was the eighth-largest in the United States and was the second-largest railroad terminus after Chicago. Business was booming, thanks to the cheap and abundant hydroelectric electricity supplied by nearby Niagara Falls. And from May to October that year, the city hosted the Pan-American exposition, a spectacular World’s Fair that was a source of great delight to visitors from far and wide. Well, there was that one part where the President of the United States was assassinated; that was kind of a bummer. But other than that, it was pretty awesome.
I’ll save my musings on the McKinley’s assassination for a future post about the McKinley death sites (plural!) of Buffalo and focus on the man at hand, Theodore Roosevelt. In September of 1901, Teddy Roosevelt was six months into a job he found unfulfilling and hadn’t even wanted in the first place: Vice President of the United States. At just 42 years old, he already had a lengthy career of public service. He had been a New York State assemblyman, served on the Civil Service Commission, and had been the NYC Police Commissioner, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, AND the Governor of New York. This is in addition to a couple side jaunts as a North Dakota cowboy and a rough riding calvary colonel in Cuba. Considering his resume, the relatively powerless position of VP wasn’t very exciting, but things were about to change.
After McKinley was shot on September 6th, Roosevelt made his way to Buffalo, arriving on September 7th. He hung around for a few days, staying at the home of his friend, lawyer Ansley Wilcox. McKinley was doing well (you know, considering he was recovering from a gunshot wound and all) and was expected to survive, so Roosevelt decided it would be cool if he cut out and went camping in the Adirondacks with his family. Spoiler alert: McKinley died. Roosevelt was summoned once McKinley took a turn for the worst, but he did not make it back to Buffalo until the early afternoon of September 14th, nearly twelve hours after McKinley had passed away.
As he did during his first visit, Roosevelt stayed with his friend, and it was in Ansely Wilcox’s house that he was sworn in as President of the United States around 3:30 PM on September 14, 1901. The Wilcox residence is now the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site.
I visited the site in June of 2019 while my friend Sara and I were on a trip to Buffalo, Toronto, and Niagara Falls. Besides Roosevelt and McKinley, I also delighted (bored) Sara with visits to TWO Millard Fillmore sites, but I did spare her any Grover Cleveland stops. Cleveland was once the mayor of Buffalo, but he didn’t leave much of a mark in the way of visitable tourism sites–it would have mainly just been driving past the various homes he briefly lived in. Which I totally would have done if I was alone.
Since I’m writing about my trip anyhow, I’d like to take this opportunity to mention (brag) that, while he’s not a US President, during the international leg of our adventure, I did get the opportunity to feast my eyes upon Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This was almost two months ago and I still have not fully processed the fact that this actually happened.
But back to Roosevelt.
The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site is managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site Foundation, which split the costs of operating the site. From the impression I got, the local foundation does most of the actual work of running the site, while the NPS mans the information/admissions desk and the gift shop.
When I walked in, I definitely got the classic-NPS vibe (that’s not a complaint, I love the NPS). We bought our tickets from an NPS employee. When he asked if I had an Annual Interagency Pass, I noted that my pass had recently expired. (Side note: The Interagency “America the Beautiful” Pass is awesome and everyone who frequents NPS sites should have one. You can get them here. I just happened to be in a brief lapse between passes at the time and would have bought a new one on the spot if this site sold them.) I jokingly asked if he would accept an expired pass. “No” he said in a grave and firm manner that basically screamed “I have no sense of humor.” Guess I need to learn how to read a room. And to also renew my pass in a timely manner, since that would have covered the $24 admission cost for the two of us.
We immediately walked into the museum area, as the tour was getting ready to start. This area is available to all visitors, while only those who purchase a tour ticket are able to proceed further into the home. There were several well-done displays about the Pan-American Exposition and a nice introductory video. I’m not sure if they only show the video for tours or other times as well.
Our tour guide, in contrast to the guy at the desk, was Mr. Personality. What he presented us with for roughly the next hour was not so much a tour as it was a performance piece.
Now, I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t recall if this part happened before or after we watched the video, but we definitely got a briefing on time travel. That’s right, time travel. We would not just be touring a historic house, we were informed, but we would actually be traveling BACK IN FREAKIN’ TIME to 1901. I was immediately curious about the mechanics of how this would work. Would we go by DeLorean? Phone booth? Police box? No sir. Our tour guide let us know that all needed to happen for our entire group to be magically whisked away to 1901 was for him to put on his special hat. He also let us know it was cool to take pics in the house with our phones (no flash) even though this was wildly anachronistic.
Then, the hat went on and away we went!
After the jump backwards in time, the first thing I noticed is that the room we were standing in looked remarkably similar to the way it did back in 2019. Also, I found it an interesting interior design choice for Ansley Wilcox to devote an entire room of his home to a museum exhibit about the Pan-American Exhibition. But hey, to each his own.
The first “tour-exclusive” place we visited was the dining room. The tour guide pointed out several details that indicated the owners were well off.